A New Urban Agenda: Conservation as an aim of sustainable development

Surabaya, 13 October 2016 — Conserving the history of a city could be part of local economic development. Often, a relic of history is evicted and replaced by new buildings as part of a city plan to welcome modernization or so-called globalization. Few cities in Indonesia are able to maintain their authenticity; however, Surabaya is an exception, as they produce regulation that strictly maintains historical heritage as part of the city's sustainable development strategy See more.

A New Urban Agenda: Conservation as an aim of sustainable development

Widya Anggraini, Surabaya Community Manager

Surabaya, 13 October 2016

Prepcom 3 was held in Surabaya earlier this year, in July 2016, as an attempt to formulate a sustainable urban development agenda in preparation for the Habitat III Conference in Quito, which has set out standards for the next 20 years to address major urban problems. Sustainable development requires the ability to maintain the quality of the environment and the harmony between nature and human beings. This also means that the city needs to maintain its originality by preserving historic buildings through careful planning without displacing them. In this case, city planning often becomes justification to spur eviction, including in Surabaya.

Surabaya itself is one of the cities in Indonesia with many historical buildings with relics that have become a symbol of the early history of Indonesia. Surabaya is also known as the City of Heroes. Previous governments have paid little attention to the history of Surabaya and planned to mirror the city with Jakarta. However, there is good practice from the current government that understands the importance of preserving their history by issuing Local regulation No 5/2005 on Cultural Heritage Preservation.

Cultural heritage preservation aims to maintain the authenticity of buildings, while maintaining and protecting the building from damage and utilizing buildings as cultural properties. Before the regulation was enacted, many historical buildings were destroyed, because their existing standards mismatched with modern ones as globalization requires modernization of infrastructure. The government was concerned about this development and reacted by issuing regulation. In its implementation, according to the head of the Department of Culture and Tourism, Wiwik Widayati, stated that the city has conducted an inventory of cultural heritage based on reports from community or public figures who are concerned about the preservation of cultural heritage. She also stated that cultural preservation was conducted by renovating and producing more technical guidelines to maintain historical continuity.

The effort to maintain the authenticity of the city has been strong. Conservation of cultural heritage areas are currently being carried out. Also, conservation can help the government in terms of economic development. When the cultural heritage has been managed and conserved, it will be a key attraction for foreign and domestic tourists. This also means additional local revenue. The city department of Culture and Tourism said that Surabaya currently has about 273 heritage buildings with a variety of types that could be conserved and developed to maintain the history of Surabaya.

Sustainable development requires preservation and management of cultural heritage in new way according to local development. The challenge for the government in maintaining the uniqueness of cultural heritage, then conserved and preserved is the lack of public knowledge on the part of building owners or the owners of capital who do not understand the criteria of cultural heritage. The consequence is that they often violate the procedure of development in heritage areas. If demolition comes before reporting takes place, it makes it too late to protect. Awareness should be improved. Synergy between government and the people is vital for cultural heritage conservation and preservation so that the city has strong ownership and appreciation towards the history of the city. Close.

Empowering riverbank communities

Surabaya, 14 September 2016 — Communities who lives on riverbanks often receive a stigma as illegal people that causing floods and pollution to the river next to them. Hence, evictions are common policy, as well as as relocations away from the riverbank. This process may very well break their only communal bonds and threaten their liviloods. However, the Strenkali Surabaya community shows that resilience is possible and demonstrates that eviction is not the only policy to improve riverbanks. See more.

Empowering riverbank communities

Widya Anggraini, Surabaya Community Manager

Surabaya, 14 September 2016

City planners often consider people who live on riverbanks guilty for making the river dirty and causing floods during the rainy season. They're also held responsible for slums around the riverbanks which make the inhabitants prone to disease. People who live on riverbanks receive a stigma that they are illegal, dirty, poor, underdeveloped, uneducated, and make the city ugly. Therefore, this stigma ostensibly becomes a reason to justify eviction as the only solution for avoiding disease, flooding, and further damage to the river. Economically these communities are vulnerable because their settlement is far from the city center as the source of their living. Most of them are working in the informal sector. Hence, resilience to disaster, and anticipating socioeconomci changes for the worse are daily worry for such people. Learning from Strenkali Surabaya, we might say that it is possible for riverbanks communities to independently persevere and manage resources and the environment without much help from the government. More importantly, by showing who they are and what is false about the misconceptions associated with them, they may be able to change the government plans about eviction./p>

According to Gatot Subroto, one of the coordinators at Paguyuban Warga Strenkali, their riverbank community was formed due to rapid urbanization starting 1945. They started to occupy the riverbank area and built huts then turn to semi and permanent settlements. Around 2007, the government issued regulation to displace the housing but received strong resistance form the Strenkali community.

The Strenkali community then organized themselves into an association called Paguyuban Warga Strenkali Surabaya (PWSS). They attempted to change the mindset of the local government about eviction policies by upgrading their housing and organizing themselves, while developing counter proposals that indicate that flooding could be prevented with active participation from the wider community. It also says that urban development can be carried out without relocation processes.

In order to prepare the proposal, PWSS actively conducted mapping and studies on spatial planning, hydrology, ecology, and sanitation. The result was then analyzed and formulated into solutions to answer problems with respect to social and economic challenges. The process involved everyone, including residents, hydrological experts, architects, academics, and community leaders. The result was that the Strenkali community now has a five-year work plan to upgrade their housing and working with the government to clean up the river and move back the house to create space. All of this was done without eviction.

The process of Kampung upgrading was led by the community themselves. Their activity involved ajdusting positions of the houses that partially occupy the river and setting them back about 3-5 meters to make room for road and sanitation infrastructure. The whole process produced the concept of Jogokali (Protect the River). It is a concept of protecting the river and building community resilience. From the economic side, they formed the business group KUBE as well as a savings group. They also formed a study group for children, held health gymnastics, and put on the River Float festival during Habitat Day in October. Capacity-building is also on the agenda of PWSS especially with respect to disaster preparedness, sanitation, village planning, and other necessary skills.

The Strenkali community is basically an example of how to manage riverbanks without necessarily sacrificing the community who has already live there for decades. By utilizing the resources that already exist within the community, the authorities should benefit from them as they protect the river and prevent the floods and abrasion. All of this work also empowers them social and economically as full and recognized members of the community. The main challenge appears to be on the verge of being fully overcome, in the Surabaya government has shown a cler willingness to support this practices and alter their initial plans on mass eviction. Close.

Involving street vendors in culinary tourism

Surabaya, 18 July 2016 — Street vendors (PKL) are part of the informal economy we often witness in big cities such as Surabaya. They occupy the sidewalks and major roads, disrupting traffic. The city of Surabaya has unique ways of dealing with PKL. They build PKL centers in many spots and include these centers in culinary tourism promotion as part of a plan for economic empowerment targeting the urban poor. See more.

Involving street vendors in culinary tourism

Widya Anggraini, Surabaya Community Manager

Surabaya, 18 July 2016

Global critics say that street vendors (PKL) are considered black spots on the beauty of a city, and should be removed. In the name of city planning, those who are working in the informal sector often receive unfriendly actions, such as demolition of their stalls, forced relocation, and abrupt evictions carried out with violence. The freedom to conduct economic activity is taken away and the working poor, when that happens, get even poorer. Hence, the existence of street vendors requires special attention. The new, current strategy applied by Surabaya could be an example and reference in term of managing street vendors by not violating their right to work. The government organizes street vendors that sell food, and puts them in a center and promotes these centers as culinary tourism destinations in Surabaya.

Surabaya is one of the main gateways for trade in eastern Indonesia due to its strategic location. It has great economic potential and is known as the city of trade and economy. Surabaya develops a stable economic infrastructure that is conducive for doing business. Support for community economic development could be seen from government efforts to empower small and medium enterprises (UMKM). The number of UMKM, and cooperation around them, continues to grow. This shows that the community's economy is improving. UMKM is expected to absorb more of the workforce in coming years. So how can street vendors fit into this economic development? Do they have a place in this growing and changing economy?

The number or street vendors (PKL), according to the Economic Board of Surabaya City Government in 2005, was about 70,000 and it keeps increasing each year. Therefore, since 2004, the government has shown its support by developing PKL centers as part of city planning. Until 2014, the Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Office has built 495 PKL centers. PKL centers consists of food vendors that occupy dedicated place provided by the government. Each center has its own management to ensure that the center is convenient. Moreover, the health department regularly inspects these placea to check on the food PKLs sell, thereby increasing the attraction to more consumers.

Tourism has become a major development program in Surabaya, as there has been a shift in economic priorities toward growing the tourism sector. Surabaya is easily accessible for domestic and international tourists to visit. Therefore, one main important strategy is to design the PKL centers as tourist destinations - especially for food tours. Surabaya is also famous for its food, promising delights and distinctive flavor. In the tourism context, Surabaya has become a pull factor for tourists to come and enjoy meals and snacks in the Surabaya way.

Dedicated places for PKL are expected to encourage creativity, innovation, and confidence of the food vendors in the informal sector, likely leading them to develop local food businesses to be able to compete with imported foods currently flooding the city. In order increase consumer confidence around street vendors, the city government provides assistance on how to maintain cleanliness, attractiveness of vending locations, training on business management, and dissemination of government regulations concerning street vendors so that they no longer infringe on the rules while trading.

The policy to encourage culinary tourism proves that on the one hand it helps to empower the economy of urban poor workers as food vendors by allowing them to continue working. On the other hand, this policy to create PKL centers is a strategic plan to create a better and inclusive city. The main challenge is to conduct proper assessments related to ideal locations for PKL centers to keep pace with evolving tourist hotspots.Close.

E-government to achieve equitable Surabaya

Surabaya, 14 June 2016 — The city of Surabaya is actively implementing e-government to promote good governance and to encourage active participation of its citizens. E-government is an essential tool for the government to achieve an equitable city. This interview with Retno Hastijanti, an urban expert, will highlight the challenges in narrowing the gaps between rich and poor and discuss ways Surabaya has transformed more equitably. See more.

The Role of Non-Governmental Sectors in Building Surabaya Smart City

Widya Anggraini, Surabaya Community Manager

Surabaya, 14 June 2016

This interview was conducted with Retno Hastijanti, the second Vice President of Untag University. Currently, she also performs as counsellor at the Cultural and Tourism Board and architecture expert at Bappeko. She is also leading Prepcom 3 for UN Habitat III, which will take place in Surabaya in July 2016.

How do you define an equitable city?

An equitable city is a just city. It means that the city does not take sides or, in my field, it’s known as an inclusive space. Hence, an equitable city is also an inclusive city that serves everyone equally regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or race. For example, in term of ethnicity, it means the city acknowledges plurality and provides inclusive spaces that are accessible to all ethnic groups. In term of employment, equitability means being able to provide diverse jobs and livelihoods and able to guarantee the continuity of the work.

What factors are needed to be considered an equitable city?

An equitable city needs a government that performs as both leader and manager. "Manager" means they have capacity to administer an organization. Meanwhile, as a “leader,” it means that the city should be able not only to manage but also give examples. Mixing both a leader and a manager will lead to an equitable city.

Has Surabaya became an equitable city?

Surabaya is not entirely equitable, but we are heading there with a clearer roadmap now. In terms of the managerial aspect, Surabaya is learning to be a transparent bureaucrat, listening to people and be an effective and efficient manager. Especially now, Surabaya is applying e-government to implement an equitable city. It has also launched various smart applications to encourage active participation from communities as well as to promote good governance.

Meanwhile, from the leadership side, in order to become an equitable city, then a leader should become a role model. At the moment, we think that Bu Risma, Surabaya’s mayor, has shown good leadership and has been acknowledged by the people here. This type of leadership is passed on to her staff. She and her staff attend the invitations given by communities. According to Bu Risma, government needs to blend with the people in order to better understand their situation.

Implementing an equitable city in Surabaya is not the government’s responsibility alone; therefore, we are also involving private companies through corporate social responsibility programs. For example, we have engaged with Nippon Paint to help fisherman communities to renovate their houses.

What are the challenges for Surabaya to implement an equitable city?

From the community side, the main challenge is the emergence of gated communities. It means that many gated communities are separated by portals and security guards. We are afraid that this will create distance between communities.

Meanwhile, a challenge from the government is more about patience and discipline to run Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) while performing e-government. Many of our officials prefer something instant when there are procedures to follow. We also need regular evaluations to assess whether the system is running effectively and efficiently by seeing the impact on the communities. At the end, we must realize that this application only intends to create an equitable city, and the most important part is the people who run it.Close.

The Role of Non-Governmental Sectors in Building Surabaya Smart City

Surabaya, 4 May 2016 — One of the keys for the implementation of Smart City is strong commitment from the government. Surabaya City Government (SCG) is one of the city governments in Indonesia with a firm commitment that fully supports the actualization of a technology-based smart city. However, it is also important to involve the non-governmental sector in order to accelerate this process. See more.

The Role of Non-Governmental Sectors in Building Surabaya Smart City

Widya Anggraini, Surabaya Community Manager

Surabaya, 4 May 2016

Surabaya is one of the big cities in Indonesia that have adopted the Smart City program. The implementation follows a holistic approach involving many aspects that match with problems faced by Surabaya. Through this effort, Surabaya has won the Smart City Awards 2011 for three categories: Smart Government, Smart Living, and Smart Environment. It would not be such a success without the government’s high level of commitment since 2002 to actualize a Smart City that is based on information communication technology. However, in order to create a Smart City, the government’s efforts alone will not suffice, we need to cooperate with other stakeholders that have both commitment and competence. An example is what was done by Telkomsel through their CSR though The#NextDev, an application development competition to support the Smart City scheme.

The application of Smart City in Surabaya is divided into two major parts: regional expenditure management and public service. As of right now, there are 17 E-Government applications, all of which are directed towards the original six main dimensions of the Smart City; Smart Government, Smart Economy, Smart Environment, Smart Living, Smart People, and Smart Mobility. At the start of the implementation, Surabaya Smart City emphasized the Smart Governance and Smart People aspects. They were seen as capital to further apply the other four dimensions, and ultimately actualize the Smart City scheme. Throughout this whole process, it was discovered that the role of all stakeholders is crucial to create a Smart City.

The government is not the only institution responsible for Smart City. In the case of Surabaya, its government is already very committed in supporting a clean and transparent government administration, through the implementation of TIK in public services. Moving forward, this effort would require the support of other non-governmental parties to drive and accelerate the Smart City. As one of the largest phone operators in Indonesia, Telkomsel started a competition called The#NextDev as part of their Digital Creative Indonesia Competition program.

This competition started in 2015 and will continue in 2016. Generally, Telkomsel claimed that they are targeting six subjects in the competition: government (e-Government), education (e-Education), small medium enterprises (e-UKM), tourism (e-Tourism), and public transportation (e-Transportation). This competition mainly targets youth groups (ages 18-30 years old) and professionals. Nevertheless, it welcomes the participation of the general public and anyone that wants to participate designing an application to support the needs of society. This activity is intended to inspire young developers and drive collaborations with regional governments to find solutions for problems around the city.

This competition was held in ten big cities including Surabaya. The winners returned to their respective hometowns for two days to exhibit their work with locals. A seminar was also held, where the winners shared their experience throughout the competition with the public. In this pulang kampung activity, potential local developers can attend a workshop and simulation on development methods of the digital application, financial planning, and marketing strategy. The final application product can be adopted by the government or utilized independently to speed up the realization of smart city.

The function of non-governmental groups as a part of the development process of the Smart City is important. The challenge lies in the government’s awareness in encouraging the involvement of the private sector, especially because the Surabaya city government mostly emphasizes the improvement of public service instead of supporting public-driven innovation and creativity to support the Smart City. This is a commonplace situation because Surabaya did not initially design a Smart City. But as time goes by, they found out that their development efforts are in accordance to the Smart City character. Close.

Promoting Walking Culture in Surabaya

Surabaya, 5 April 2016 — Walking in Surabaya is not an easy thing to do. The poor sidewalk conditions, hot weather, and unsatisfactory public transport service prompts civilians to choose motorbikes and cars instead of travelling on foot. In order to create a culture of walking as part of a daily commute, the government started repairing sidewalks aggressively, and many walking communities have started group walking events with various themes as well. See more.

Promoting Walking Culture in Surabaya

Widya Anggraini, Surabaya Community Manager

Surabaya, 5 April 2016

Only a few cities in Indonesia pay attention to a walking culture among residents. This is reflected through the poor quality of the pavement in many cities, including Surabaya. Moreover, the hot weather entices people into owning private vehicles such as motorcycles and cars. As a result, civilians are seldom found walking in Surabaya.

Regarding this issue, we can see two interesting initiatives that have emerged within the Surabaya City Government (SCG) and small groups in the local community. The SCG is keen on beautifying sidewalks and pavements around the city. At the same time, there is increasing awareness among the public regarding the absence of walking culture, which spurred an idea to form a walking program called Manic Street Walkers (MSW). This community invites residents to take pleasure in walking by exploring the city. Both of these initiatives are interrelated and hopefully will be able to create a culture of commuting on foot in Surabaya.

Pavements in Surabaya tend to be poorly maintained. Many are damaged, have holes, are polluted with garbage, and remain crowded with persistent cadgers selling their goods despite prohibition signs. In recent years, the SCG has made many improvements on sidewalks and waterways. Pavements now use marble, are wider in size, and are more elevated to prevent motorcycles from taking over. These improvements are done primarily on main streets such as Jalan Raya Darmo, Basuki Rachmad, Raya Gubeng, Panglima Sudirman, and the Jembatan Merah area. Moreover, upgrading waterways can also reduce the risk of flooding. Since 2012, there has been substantial financial support from the government with a total of 15 billion Rupiah—and that is expected to increase annually.

Even on the regional level, the Manic Street Walkers (MSW) have emerged. This community has active campaigns for street walking as an effort to get involved in city tourism. MSW started in 2011 as a program managed by C2O library & collaborative. This initiative was in response to the poor public transportation quality in Surabaya, such that walking becomes a better alternative compared to purchasing private vehicles. Furthermore, the streets of Surabaya are gentle and low, which helps mobility. The founders of MSW also saw Surabaya as a historic city with 700 years worth of learning material, and they hope to offer a fun and exciting experience. The around-the-city walking tour activity is done at least twice a month with varying themes, such as history, old villages, Chinatown, Arabic villages, and others. Before the thematic walk, the MSW team conducts extensive research about the culture, social, and politics of the route, which later could be correlated with historians, architects, designers, and culinary experts to synthesize an exciting street waking experience.

These two initiatives are supported by the Mayor, Tri Rismaharini, as essential to promote sustainable development, including improving pavements and waterways. This commitment should also be supported by technical offices in the city, which is rare without strong leadership from the Mayor. Meanwhile, on a community level, the biggest challenge would be to encourage people to walk to increase awareness on social issues within the city they live in. Close.

Mainstreaming Gender to create a Surabaya for all

Surabaya, 28 March 2016 — Women are still considered a vulnerable group and prone to social and economic discrimination. The gender mainstreaming strategy by Surabaya’s mayor aims to fill in the gender gap to reduce inequalities between men and women in every sector. Two related programs were launched called Women Friendly City and Women Economic Heroes and both are expected to be able to help make Surabaya an inclusive city. See more.

Mainstreaming gender to create a Surabaya for all

Widya Anggraini, Surabaya Community Manager

Surabaya, 28 March 2016

There are three main driving factors for urbanization in Surabaya: labor wages, work opportunities and family relationships. While men are the dominant migrant group in Surabaya, over time women have also migrated to urban areas due to following a husband or relative. Female migrants usually have lower education levels than men; hence, they are usually lower paid than men. Many of these women end up working as housemaids or factory laborers. Their challenges are different than they are for men. Women have limited access to funding, are prone to human trafficking and subject to domestic violence. Therefore, as part of a city-wide gender mainstreaming effort to overcome gender-related problems, Surabaya launched Women Friendly City and Women Economic Heroes.

Women Friendly City, managed by local government Community Empowerment and Family Planning Agency (Bapemas dan KB), is the realization of a development strategy that was established in the Mid-term Development Planning (RPJMN). The strategy intended to improve quality of life, protect women and children, and create gender equality. According to this, any local policies directed at improving institutional coordination in the development process became focused on services as well as protecting women and empowering them. This program was initiated in 2012 and dedicated units have been provided in which women can make complaints about public services and obtain their rights.

Meanwhile, in terms of the availability of women-friendly infrastructure, the government has started to provide public facilities that enable women to do their activities based on their gender differences and needs. Many of government offices are now equipped with lactation rooms as well as in public spaces. The government also requested shopping center management to provide lactation rooms at malls. Government commitment could also be seen through the budget they prepared for this program: as much as 4.7 billion rupiah for the same year, which is expected to increase in the upcoming years.

Gender mainstreaming in Surabaya is not just driven through the improvement of public services facility but also by encouraging economic independence through a program called Women Economic Heroes (WEH). This program is implemented in cooperation with the private sector as partner to develop women’s SMEs. This program will choose heroes who are able to make changes in the family, business and their environment. The selection process is done through several stages: recruitment, selection, development and idea launching. The winner is entitled to an employment contract for the supply of goods/services. WEH has become a leading program as it enables collaboration between SMEs and the private sector to promote women’s autonomy in the economy.

Surabaya’s commitment towards gender mainstreaming is one of the best among cities in Indonesia. Attention to women is reflected through their programs and budget devoted to increasing women’s welfare. On the one hand, government is support women through appropriate and thoughtful infrastructure to ensure women are able to fully participate in public spaces, and, on the other hand, the government is simultaneously partnering with the economic sector to increase household income and foster women’s economic self confidence. These programs are slowly able to increase public awareness on gender issues happening in various sectors, and it is hoped that this awareness will lead to the creation of safer city for everyone. The main challenge of this program is to change the mindset of government service providers not to discriminate, and to encourage the active participation of women in government programs as part of the key to success. Close.

E-SapaWarga: promoting participation through technology

Surabaya, 17 February 2016 — Surabaya city government actively engages the community in their development planning processes. One current planning mechanism, called Musrenbang, has had procedural limits to wider participation. However, now the government has designed E-SapaWarga and E-Musrenbang, which can be accessed publicly and allow better communication between the community and the government for improved development planning. See more.

E-SapaWarga: Promoting participation through technology

Widya Anggraini, Surabaya Community Manager

Surabaya, 17 February 2016

Indonesia recognizes a participatory development planning system involving the community, from the local to national level, as stated in Law No. 25 of 2004 in the National Development Planning System. In order to synchronize the development from the local to national level, Musrenbang – which is similar to a public meeting – is carried out. Musrenbang is a forum trying to take aspirations from all development stakeholders. The main flaw of this forum is that it is conducted for formality purposes and is followed only by a few people who represent different organizations. Therefore, Surabaya government came out with a new idea: to apply information technology to the participatory system. It created E-Sapawarga and E-Musrenbang to collect asporations from the public, not just representatives.

Surabaya city government encourages the use of information technology to provide better public services. E-Government started in 2002 in order to promote the implementation of good governance. Currently, E-Government in Surabaya is divided into two groups: one is for financial management and the other is for community services. E-SapaWarga itself is part of the community services, including E-Licensing, E-Musrenbang and a complaint mechanism.

Initially, E-SapaWarga was named E-RT/RW (RT/RW is equal to neighborhood) designed as a channel to connect between people quickly and accurately to solve problems at the neighborhood level. In this way, people can communicate and participate better to create a better environment. The system also provided a feature that connects people with government officials to ensure that the aspirations were taken into account and any complaints are followed up. E-RT/RW was then developed similar to social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, which people were already familiar with. E-SapaWarga replaces E-RT/RW to connect people and is used as a means to deliver aspirations as part of the people’s participation in development processes.

E-Sapawarga also provides civil registration services, which require the neighborhood leader’s (RT/RW) approval and a reference letter for a fingerprints check, birth and death records, and moving, which can be done online. Hence, through this system, officers at the sub-district and district levels will receive real-time information after verification by the head of RT/RW. The same system could make some cases easier to confirm, such as if the neighborhood experiences damaged infrastructure, an epidemic, school dropouts, poor households, and other cases. Based on this information, related government offices could take appropriate actions. E-SapaWarga, therefore, goes beyond collecting aspirations; it can also act as a means of monitoring development activity in the region. Citizens can submit a complaint if there are indications of irregularities in the existing projects in the neighborhood, for example. This information will be directly accepted by related authorities and the followed up on.

Besides E-Sapawarga, people can submit proposals and aspirations through E-Musrenbang. This website is open to the public and provides information about incoming proposals of physical and non-physical development planning, as well as information about approved or rejected proposals. Successful implementation of E-SapaWarga and E-Musrenbang is supported by the use of information technology as well as good political will from the current mayor, who understands the benefit of using IT to engage and maximize participation. However, the challenge remains to prepare better human resources and provide adequate infrastructure for people to access these services. Close.

The Urban Social Forum comes to Surabaya

The Urban Social Forum (USF) is unlike any other urban forum. This forum was created by Kota Kita to provide an alternative space that negates formal mechanisms as we commonly see with government-type participation meetings. The event is actually a facilitating forum that is inclusive, democratic, and open for everyone to discuss a debate about what city they wish to see and live in. The first USF was conducted in 2013 and since then it has become an annual event that attracts hundreds of participants, NGOs and government officials. This forum is becoming more and more popular, as there is increasing awareness among people and the community to collaborate in developing solutions for current complex urban problems. Read more.

Toward a green and low-carbon Surabaya

Surabaya, 17 December 2015 — Climate change is a shared problem. Surabaya, as the second biggest city in Indonesia, is determined to create an environmentally friendly green city in cooperation with the City of Kitakyushu in Japan, which involves bringing technology transfer in four target sectors and fostering train-focused communities to create energy-saving habit. See more.

Toward a green and low-carbon Surabaya

Widya Anggraini, Surabaya Community Manager

Surabaya, 17 December 2015

For the past few years, Surabaya has been getting ready to become the Green City in 2020. As the city has rapidly developed into the second largest city in Indonesia, it is now necessary to accelerate development and to provide public facilities, such as housing, as well as transportation and economic infrastructure with good quality and sustainability. Therefore, the current city officials are developing in cooperation with the City of Kitakyushu in Japan and Kitakyushu Asian Center for Low Carbon in a program called the Low-carbon Program and Environmentally Sustainable City (ESC) Planning.

The low-carbon policy adopted by Surabaya is in line with Indonesia’s national policy, which was articulated in the mid-term Development Plan (RPJMN), Law No 32/2009 on the Environmental Protection and Management, as well as by the national commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 29% by 2030 . These national policies and commitments have translated into Surabaya’s mayor’s vision and mission that promote Surabaya as an environmentally friendly city. A number of local regulations have also been issued to support the Green City program. This commitment has been extended to collaborate with the private sector and international partners, such as Kitakyushu City.

As part of Surabaya’s effort to create the Green City, it is working with IGES Kitakyushu Urban Center to develop a program called Low Carbon and Environmentally Sustainable City Planning. This program intends to achieve four objectives: to encourage Surabaya city planning to develop low-carbon and environmentally friendly activities in the fields of energy, transportation, waste and water; to identify programs that can reduce CO2 emissions and save energy costs in the short term; to identify programs that can reduce CO2, which provides multiple benefits in the long-term, socially, economically and environmentally; and to encourage the development of data management system to measure the reduction of CO2 emissions and make CO2 measurement methodology.

The joint program with Japan has been initiated since 2011, since the issuance of the joint statement on strategic partnership for environmental issues. This partnership was followed by the cooperation of the two cities under the "Green Sister City" program in 2012, between Surabaya and Kitakyushu. There are four main target sectors: energy management, water treatment, recycling and waste management, and transportation. Each sector is collaborating with different relevant stakeholders. For example, the energy sector at the moment conducts several activities to develop a co-generation system at SIER industrial park, promoting energy saving in the offices, malls and hospitals, as well as changing street lights to LED. The main target of this program is to reduce gas emissions in the four sectors that will impact total emissions reductions to 120,000 TCO2 per year. Moreover, in order to ensure participation, this program involves many stakeholders, including central government and ministries, provincial governments, private sector, including local companies, and civil society such as universities, communities and think tanks.

The activity under joint cooperation with Kitakyushu is not only about technology transfer, but also building methodologies on how to build a green city. Therefore, capacity building is provided for stakeholders, including government and community. Training was given to government officials who manage the program and beneficiaries from the community so that they are able to utilize the technology based on local needs. The main challenge lies in the availability of resources and the behavior change of community members to be more energy efficient and environmentally conscious.Close.